J.M.J.
On the cusp of All Saints Day and All Souls Day, we read from Chapter 7, “The Communion of
Saints,” in Karl Adam’s The Spirit of
Catholicism. Our Lady is the Queen of those who have left this earth doing
God’s will.
“And so the wonderful fact that God is not alone in the work
of redemption, but that creatures too, in their measure, truly share in that
work, is illustrated nowhere more clearly than in Mary. It is true that the
fact that Mary had such privilege was due to grace alone, that she was called
from eternity to be the Mother of God and was from the beginning immersed in
Christ’s redeeming grace, so that she was conceived Immaculate, without stain
of original sin. It was grace too, and grace alone, which gave her heart its
ardent and complete devotion to the Savior and its maiden resolution, so that
she ‘knew no man’ (Lk. i, 34) and as ‘Virgin of virgins’ was that closed door ‘through
which no man shall pass, because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by
it’ (cf. Ezech. xliv, 2). Yet the grace of God does not offer violence, but
would be freely accepted. And therefore, however infinitely small Mary’s own
activity may appear in comparison with the activity of God, there remains a
human strand in the divine robe of our salvation, the ‘Be it done unto me’ of
Mary.
“And the
Catholic exalts Mary above all angels and saints (hyperdulia), because it has
pleased God to give her decisive words this effective position in the work of
redemption. The Fathers from the time of St. Justin Martyr continually urge
this importance of Mary in the history of salvation, and contrast it with the
sin of the first woman. Just as Eve’s consent to the serpent’s temptation brought
sin and ruin, so did Mary’s consent to the angel’s message introduce
redemption. So Mary possesses not only a personal relation to the Son of God
and her personal salvation, but also a relation to the ‘many’ who are redeemed
by her Son. She is mother not of the Redeemer alone, but also of the redeemed;
and so she is the mother of the faithful. The Catholic acknowledges in heaven
not only a Father, but also a mother. Though by her human nature she is
infinitely distant from the Father, yet her special graces have raised her to a
wonderful nearness to God, and as mother of the Redeemer she reflects God’s
goodness and bounty with an inwardness and a truth that are possible to no
other creature. When the Catholic speaks of his Heavenly Mother, his heart is
full with all the strength of feeling that is contained in that word. Mary is
as it were a gracious revelation of certain ineffable and ultimate traits in
the nature of God, which are too fine and too delicate to be grasped otherwise
than as reflected in the mirror of a mother. Ave Maria!”
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